Putting In Some Time With The PlayStation 4 PlayRoom

A while back Sony announced that every PlayStation 4 would come pre-loaded with an app called The PlayRoom. It’s a piece of software designed to show off the capabilities of the Dual Shock 4‘s light bar and the way it interacts with the PlayStation Eye peripheral. Since the Eye isn’t going to be packaged with the standard PlayStation 4 console bundle, many gamers won’t have the chance to use the software at launch, unless they head out and put down an additional $59.99 on top of their console and additional software purchases.

I see the PlayStation 4 PlayRoom as a killer party app. The demo that we recently played showed off some of the fun mini games you’ll be able to access in the PlayRoom. Things like choreographing a clone dance line and an impromptu air hockey session were a lot of fun. It’s really too bad that Sony decided to remove the Eye camera from the standard bundle. They still would’ve undercut Microsoft‘s Xbox One by $50 day one, and removing the peripheral from the box doesn’t give devs the confidence needed to spend the engineering time necessary to integrate awesome applications for the Eye.

Who knows what will become of the PlayRoom, but I see it as a fantastic opportunity to give the community development tools to support the PlayStation 4 motion control library long term. If large scale developers aren’t able to throw development time at the peripheral, why not let aspiring developers take a stab at making something really fun that will expand the PS4’s motion control portfolio?

Dylan splits time between games journalism, designing video games, and playing them. Outside of his deep involvement in the games industry, he enjoys It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Shameless, A Song of Ice and Fire, fitness, and family.